CXC exams: Record low sittings; no-shows doubled

GEORGETOWN – A record low number of students sat the Caribbean Examination Council’s (CXC) exams this year and close to one in ten fourth and fifth formers failed to show up, CXC’s Director of Operations Dr Nicole Manning revealed during the annual release of results on Thursday.

The results are to be fully published on Friday.

As the coronavirus pandemic dragged into a second year with newer and more virulent strains that disrupted classes across the region, the examinations body controversially rebuffed calls for a delay of the annual June-July exam season.

This followed last year’s results which were strongly disputed by parents, students and teachers.

Delivering a report on the administration of this year’s exams and the regional performance outlook in a virtual ceremony, Dr Manning noted the slump across almost all the examinations body’s brands – the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE), the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC), the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ), and even the Caribbean Primary Exit Assessment (CPEA), the form of common entrance examination used in the Eastern Caribbean.

Referring specifically to CAPE she said: “We did see a reduction both in candidate entries as well as subject entries and this would have been our lowest cohort for the last four years.”

Dr Manning said they were only 27,750 candidate entries and 110,020 subject entries.

In 2020, there were 30,398 candidate entries and 119,356 subject entries; 30,944 candidate entries and 121, 595 subject entries in 2019, whilst in 2018 they were 30,716 candidate entries and 120,144 subject entries.

Dr Manning said the number of absentees was also the highest in the last four years at 8.83 per cent. That number more than doubled from 2020 when it was at 3.99 per cent.

She pointed out that reduction was also seen in the CSEC exam where 103,445 candidates sat examinations and there were 502,859 subject entries.

Dr Manning said there was also a high level of absenteeism at 11.23 per cent.

She pointed out that there were similar decreases in candidates who sat the CVQ and CPEA.

The Caribbean Certificate of Secondary Level Competence (CCSLC) was the only examination in which there was an increase in the number of candidate entries. But there was a decrease in subject entries.

Despite the daunting figures, Dr Manning maintained that CXC had risen to the challenges facing students during the year.

She said the COVID-19 pandemic, the eruption of the La Soufriere Volcano in St Vincent and the Grenadines and the passing of Hurricane Elsa had all affected students.

Dr Manning said: “Firstly, of course, the pandemic is still with us so we had to grapple with that but I must say that we rose to the challenges and we were able to facilitate all the various candidates whether they were stranded in a particular country outside of the region itself or they were not able to sit, or they would have been able to sit with the St Vincent and the Grenadines cohort and that is very important to note because for the first time they would have had a second option.”

She said CXC had reduced School-Based Assessment (SBA) requirements by as much as 50 per cent, had reduced the requirements for specific subjects given the impact of the pandemic, had delayed exams by six weeks, had extended the submission times of SBAs by six weeks, had released topics for Paper 2 five weeks prior to examinations and had also deferred examinations to 2022.

In his remarks, CXC Registrar and chief executive officer Dr Wayne Wesley praised the regional body for its efforts in facilitating the exams.

But he acknowledged that COVID-19 had exposed several weaknesses in the regional educational system and pointed to the urgent need to reorient the region’s approach for sustainable development. randybennett@barbadostoday.bb